Friday, March 7, 2008

Great Expectations

I'm about as high on Jacob Ellsbury as anyone west of the Berkshires, but when you see headlines like "Red Sox' Ellsbury seems ready to blaze a trail to stardom," you have to figure that a non trivial amount of disappointment is in the offing. While a fine player, he's not likely to hit .350 and repeat as a postseason hero. No one is, though I get a vibe that that's what Red Sox Nation expects.

Question: what will the headlines look like if he hits a workmanlike .290 with very little power? Because that's what he did in just over 400 AAA plate appearances last year.

3 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Red Sox Nation, unlike lots of other fan bases, will be more concerned about his OBP than his Batting Avg. I visited Boston last year, and heard a caller berate a radio host for being concerned about Pedroia's batting avg. slipping even though his OBP was very high. The radio host apologized and agreed with the caller. Still, your point is well-taken, Ellsbury almost cannot live up to the hype.